Falz Goes French on New Single “La Fête”

What makes Falz’s artistry as a rapper so accessible is the way it’s plugged into an offhand, lowbrow humour. His joyfully funny character hasn’t remained hermetically sealed up in the Jenifa’s Diary universe apparently, as we have come to see iterations in songs like Soft Work, Wehdone Sir, and Karishika. And while pop artistes like Yemi Alade have long since infiltrated francophone African countries with the ostensible drive to dominate the continent, Falz’s latest offering La Fête feels blissfully simple and purposeless in its own aquarium-sized world.

Produced by Demsa, La Fête is Falz at his French-speaking best. He’s believable. The chorus is ebullient and tightly controlled and reminds me of Guinean Afro-trap rapper MHD and his flowy lyricism. He pronounces magic as majiik. The video, out too, is another sublime visual piece by in-demand music video director Clarence Peters. At its core, La Fête is a call to celebration. “I told you I’m the life of the party,” Falz raps in the beginning, and we already know it won’t be a dull one.